Four students from Year 11 have been competing in this year's series of The Alan Turing Cryptography Competition, organised by the University of Manchester. It is a nationwide competition aimed at secondary school students up to year 11 and ciphers are released weekly or fortnightly. Over 1000 teams from around the country have entered this year, who follow two budding cryptographers, Ellie and Mike, as they try to solve the mystery of 'the Carbon Conundrum' this year. Turing is widely considered the founding father of Computer Science, having played a vital part to the war effort. He worked for the Government Code and Cypher School at Bletchley Park and is famous for cracking the Enigma code. He was recently portrayed by Benedict Cumberbatch in ‘The Imitation Game’, dramatizing his incredible but tragic life during World War II. This competition helps to keep the passion for cryptography alive in a fun, challenging way.If you fancy having a go do try the questions here: http://www.maths.manchester.ac.uk/cryptography_competition/